WIMMA Take On Cage Wars 39

Cage Wars 39 was a great card and a great time to be cage-side once again. This was our first time at the new venue and home of Cage Wars the Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady NY. We arrived early so we would be able to set up and talk with the Cage Wars team and the sanctioning body USMTA.

Read on as I tell you about WIMMA’s take on Cage Wars 39.

While talking with the Executive Director for USMTA Ed Kinner he ran us through what the sanctioning body that we had in the past had issues with does for each and every fight they provide sanctioning for. Now mind you we do have history with some of the USMTA team, but we believe all of that is in the past. Some members of their team steered clear and didn’t acknowledge us, but we understood. Even the night before Executive Director Kinner allowed us to watch the weigh-in process first hand. We were beyond impressed with how the USMTA evolved and has the fighters safety in mind. If I were to run a promotion I would use the USMTA sanctioning body and Executive Director Kinner without a doubt.

The Rivers Casino and Resort as far as a venue is a great place. Not only is the casino very clean, but very helpful and accommodating. Even with Cage Wars big cage, there was a lot of room and with the sold-out crowd in attendance you didn’t get that claustrophobic feeling of being packed in like sardines.

Now on to the Cage Wars 39 card. The card was scheduled for 11 bouts and that included a kickboxing match. Some of the crowd in attendance I feel didn’t realized the bout (Jaheal Austin vs Jose Carrasquero) was a kickboxing match and were yelling at the Referee not to break them up. With that said it was definitely and explosive match! Both fighters looked great and put on a great match for the crowd for the second match of the evening The first match I was looking forward to as it was a super heavyweight bout. Bob Buskey vs Shane Seccombe were ready to bring it for the crowd. Bob came out in the first round and did not touch gloves and the fighters began a slug feast and the crowd went wild! The match ended in the first round but it was a great match. Congrats goes to Bob on that one.

Only one fight went the distance and that was on the main card and was the main event of the evening. Teshay Gouthro vs Nyein Maung went the distance and Teshay won by unanimous decision and was crowned the Cage Wars Bantamweight Champion. We tip our hats to both fighters as they brought their A-game and fought a great fight.

I have to say for a big card and 4 titles the matchmaking was spot on. That brings me to the Hailey Hoard vs Elise Reed fight. I was able to interview both of these fighters and I knew this was going to be a great fight overall and it was! Elise was crowned the new Cage Wars Atomweight Champion! If you have never really seen how big a atomweight fighter is you wouldn’t believe the power they have and these two women were no exception. From exchanging blows to going to the ground, they both left it in the cage and battled until the 1:11 into the 2nd round.

Matt Boyce a fighter we have covered a lot in his career, retired the day after the fights. With 20 amateur fights under his belt he has decided to become a MMA referee and we wish him the best of luck. Matt lost his belt to the new Cage Wars heavyweight champion Jeremy Woolfolk. It was a great fight and some big blows were landed by both fighters. We spoke with Jeremy briefly after the fights and we hope to get an interview in the coming days.

Catchweight’s Kyle Kahler vs Derek Ellis (winner RD 1 triangle 1:43) had a lot of action between them even though the fight ended in round 1, it was definitely an exciting fight.

Welterweight’s Randy “Rambo” Lamb won in the first round 2:10 into the bout via rear naked choke against Frank Mazepa. Both of these warriors came out strong and could have went either way, but Rambo caught Frank with the submission.

All in all it was a great night of fights and a safe night of fights. It is a huge relief seeing a promotion with a great sanctioning body putting the fighters first and foremost. From promoting the fighters and their fights. Cage Wars is a leader in amateur MMA, and yes we can compare as this is not our first fight we have attended. Not to self promote ourselves but we have been cage side at Bellator, WSOF just to name a couple of the bigger promotions to local promotions that once were or are still around. We have traveled a lot on the east coast to cover fights and we are happy that Cage Wars is only an hour away for us.